Having struggled to obtain an Adobe Authorized Training Center for the past ten years I often get asked from students what the difference is between between Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
Firstly, I want to say that all three programs are in fact owned and developed by the same company, Adobe Systems, the entire world leader in Web development, graphical design and E-learning software. All three programs may also be bundled together into Adobe's Creative Suite, which can be a good and affordable solution to purchase this software.
I do believe an element of the confusion, is the fact that certain tasks can be achieved much more than one of these simple programs. For instance you can find vector-drawing tools available inside Photoshop and InDesign, even though Illustrator may be the predominant vector drawing program. The answer to getting the most out of these three programs will be understand what their key functions are and exactly how they could be used together.
Okay so lets have a look at each program separately. We will begin with Adobe Photoshop, which is most likely the best known out of the three. Photoshop is a specialist image editing software primarily utilized for editing bitmap images and image manipulation. Bitmap images are images, that are defined by their pixel structure. Put differently digital bitmaps could be broken down into scores of tiny pixels and each pixel features its own attributes. Bitmap images are sometimes also called raster images.
The most common type of bitmap image is a photographic image. Whether shot on film and scanned into the computer or whether digitally shot, photos are made up of millions of tiny pixels. So in other words Photoshop is a tool used to edit photographic images. Moreover it is able to do a lot of other items however the core function of Photoshop would be to edit Photographic images.
If you go down to your neighborhood newsagent and pick up any newspaper, it’s likely that very good that the images in that magazine could have been edited or altered using Photoshop. Sometimes the adjustments can be minor such as for example subtle lighting or sharpening adjustments, as well as other times they are often major like applying a filter or special effect. Photoshop can be used for retouching - ever wonder why the models and movie stars do not have any cellulite or a double chin - the clear answer is Photoshop. Often a picture can comprise of a few different images with have been merged together to form a montage. This effect can certainly be created in Photoshop.
Adobe Illustrator having said that is a vector-drawing program. Vector images are the other main kind of digital image. Unlike bitmaps, vectors are made up of a few lines and shapes, which are defined as mathematical formulae. Vectors are extremely best for creating images, which contain large parts of the same color. So as an example a navigation button in your internet site, your company logo, or any non-photographic image will be better off created as a vector. Illustrator may be the World's premiere vector drawing tool, so if you were tasked with creating any type of 'flat' art, such as a corporate profile, including logos, sign work, letterheads etc, chances are you would use Adobe Illustrator.
Adobe InDesign may be the newest from the three programs and it is a full page layout or publishing program. InDesign can be used for piecing together stuff like corporate brochures, documents, magazines, newsletters or advertisements. InDesign's specialty is dealing with documents which contain a lot of type or text.
Often designers will use all three programs on a single project. For instance we recently created newer and more effective course outlines therefore we used Illustrator to create our logo and a few other vector graphics, we used Photoshop to apply an unique shadow effect to some bitmap images, and finally we imported dozens of elements from Illustrator and Photoshop into InDesign where we added the copy and defined the layout.
Quality graphical design could make or break any organization's image. Adobe Creative Suite which include Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign plus just a little training will give you the vital edge to succeeding in an exceedingly competitive world.
